Ruby Red Fashion Friends Doll Stella

 I recently bought several Red Ruby Fashion dolls due to a recent sale.

I have always thought that these dolls were very pretty. The high prices were a bit of a deterrent, and I am pretty loyal to American Girl.

The sale made me decide to get some!

The first doll that I opened is Stella. She is gorgeous! I love her hair.

I REALLY love her eyes. The description says that she has green eyes, but I think that they are blue and hazel, like mine.

I really like the sweet faces and the posing ability of the Ruby Red dolls.

They can share a lot of clothes with the Wellie Wisher dolls and the Hearts for Hearts dolls.

The dolls and the clothes feel high quality. What I do not not like is that the clothes that they come with look very mismatching to me, except for the more expensive special edition dolls. I will be changing the clothes on all of the dolls.

They are 15.5 inches tall and skinny, so they are a lot more portable than the AG dolls, as well as poseable.

They are also a bit risky. Some dolls from this line, especially the Siblies, had eyes change color over time. This is one reason why I was reluctant to spend so much money on one of these dolls.

Right now, I am very happy with the new addition to my doll family.

Pattern Review: Keepers Dolly Duds Pretty Pilgrim

 I posted about sewing the Keepers Dolly Duds Pilgrim Boy pattern and turning it into a folk costume from the German city of Braunschweig.

I also made the Keepers Dolly Duds Pretty Pilgrim pattern and made it into a female version of the Tracht costume originally worn in Braunschweig.

I am going to post the caveat again that no one dresses like this anymore! It's a historical costume.

This is actually not the first time that I sewed a version of the Braunschweig Tracht, but it's the first time that I have made it in American Girl size.

I made a Wellie Wisher sized version before, using the Keeper's Dolly Duds Spring Dirndl pattern for Wellie Wishers. You can read that post here.

So there are multiple options for sewing your own traditional German's girl outfit.

The Pretty Pilgrim pattern has a lot of pieces. I made a chemise, a neck ruffle, waistcoat, apron and petticoat.

I did not make the coif, because the headwear that goes with the German Tracht is more like a pillbox.

I think that the end result is adorable, and I love it!

My German boy and girl look really cute together.

Pattern Review: Keepers Dolly Duds Pilgrim Boy

 So when I set myself the goal of sewing ALL of the Keepers Dolly Duds patterns, I was not very enthusiastic about making the patterns for the Pilgrims. I knew it would drive me crazy if I decided to omit these two patterns from my goal. However, the Pilgrims, while they were just trying to survive, did set off a set of events that led to genocide. 

One of my friends suggested that I look at European folk costumes. I decided to make the Pilgrim patterns and turn them into the folk costumes, or Tracht, of the German city Braunschweig.

I should make clear that I lived in Braunschweig for a year and I never, ever saw anyone wear Tracht there. It would be kind of embarrassing. I just love the city so much, I wanted to research what would have been won there historically.

After all that explanation, here is my version of the Keepers Dolly Duds Pilgrim Boy.

I didn't realize how many pieces are in this pattern! It includes a shirt, breeches, jacket, hat, stockings and shoes.

I omitted the hat and the jacket, as they did not match the outfit I wanted to create. I was really glad that the stocking pattern was included, otherwise I didn't have a way to obtain blue stockings as used in the Tracht.

The shoes I made are not going to pass for professionally made shoes AT ALL, but they are less of a distraction than making him wear sneakers with this outfit.

He borrowed Felicity's tricorn hat to top the outfit!

I am pleased with how this project turned out. I hope to eventually make him a coat to match.

Pattern Review: Keepers Dolly Duds Rising Star

 I loved the Keepers Dolly Duds Rising Star pattern as soon as it was released! 

I was a big fan of Shirley Temple as a little girl. I was pretty certain that the name and style of the dress was a Shirley reference.

I was intimidated by the pattern, however, and it took me a while to tackle it.

The part that intimidated me the most was the pleats in the middle. And I have to say that, yeah, my pleats aren't quite playing as nicely as I would like that to.

But I can keep working on setting the pleats and it will not hurt the rest of the dress.

The rest of the dress was quite easy, including all of those zig zags. 

I would be willing to try to make this dress again!

Pattern Review: Keepers Dolly Duds Double Cape

 I made the Keepers Dolly Duds Double Cape.

Mine is blue, like the one on the pattern cover. I like blue.

This pattern has three pieces: the bonnet, the cape, and a mini cape which is more over the big cape, but is a separate piece.

I was really tired and grabbed Josefina to model without changing her clothes underneath. I don't think this is really something Josefina would have worn, but other women might have worn it around her time period. 

I had trouble posing Josefina well, which is probably a me problem. The cape is just so big and full.

The pattern was easy to follow and to sew. I am very happy with it. 

As you can see, I did not add bias trim. I think it is fine without it.

I am happy to have this finished, and to post it. It took me a couple of weeks to post it after sewing it.

Birthday Rapunzel Dresses

 Today is my friend's birthday. One of her favorite dolls is her Disney Animators Rapunzel.

I used a Requiem Art Designs pattern to make her several dresses for her Punzie.

All of the dresses are purple, to go with the Rapunzel theme.

This one has long sleeves, so that she can stay warm in winter.

This is meant to be a fancy princess dress. It's a Rapunzel version of the Tiana Evening Star blue dress that I made.

And this is very much inspired by Rapunzel's classic dress, but meant to be more of an everyday version.

None of these are exact matches for anything that Rapunzel wears. It's more of a fun inspired-by collection. Even princesses need casual wear sometimes!

And here are the adorable pictures my friend took of her Rapunzel in the new dresses!

Isn't the flower crown too cute?

Pattern Review: Keepers Dolly Duds Sunday Stroll

 I finally finished Keepers Dolly Duds Sunday Stroll!

I had a spot of trouble with this one. I had almost finished it, when I had some trouble finishing the bottom of the jacket with the ruffle. The lining of the coat and the outside did not match up, so I must have made a mistake cutting somewhere.

I had to set it aside and calm down so that I could do a good job of solving the problem.

The calming down period ended up lasting three weeks. This was longer than I had intended, but I had family visiting me.

I chose solid red, because I thought it would match nicely with Christmas outfits and possibly some non-festive ones as well.

I chose cotton fabric because it would hold the shape of the jacket. Something like velvet wouldn't work as well on this one, in my opinion. Plus, making the ruffle out of velvet would not work.

I was going to make the bonnet solid red with  a solid red ruffle. I then realized that it was going to look like something out of The Handmaid's Tale. So I added lace around the brim and a red and white ruffle to soften the look.

The back of the jacket is just as cute as the front!

I may try this pattern again someday and see if I can do a better job. For now, I am so happy to have it done!